American Civil War

H

Chancellorsville

When he assumed command of the Army of the Potomac, General Joseph “Fighting Joe” Hooker promised to reverse the long string of Union defeats in the East. In April, with an army of 130,000 men, he prepared to challenge Lee, whose army of 60,000 was massed in Virginia, near Fredericksburg. While holding Lee's attention at Fredericksburg, Hooker dispatched a force around the town to attack the Confederate flank. Hesitant to use his reserves at such a critical juncture, he chose to withdraw to a defensive position at Chancellorsville, Virginia. With little hesitation, the combined forces of Lee and Jackson fell on Hooker's army and, in a fierce three-day battle (May 2-4), inflicted such heavy casualties that Hooker was forced to retreat. Chancellorsville was also a costly battle for the South. Lee lost nearly one-fifth of his men, as well as his brilliant general, Stonewall Jackson.

I

Gettysburg

Encouraged by the victory, Lee seized the initiative and moved his army into the North. Such an action, he hoped, would relieve the pressure on beleaguered Confederate forces in the West and induce a war-weary North to agree to a negotiated peace. In June, a Confederate army of 75,000 men marched through the Shenandoah Valley into southern Pennsylvania. The Army of the Potomac, numbering about 85,000 and now commanded by General George G. Meade, moved to check Lee's advance. These two massive armies converged on the small town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and on July 1 a battle began that many observers consider a turning point of the Civil War.

In manoeuvring for position, Union forces managed to occupy strategic high ground south of Gettysburg. Lee's army attacked the position at various points, only to be thrown back. On July 3, after an intensive artillery duel, Lee ordered General George E. Pickett to charge the centre of the Union lines at Cemetery Ridge. The attack failed. With his army suffering heavy casualties, Lee retreated, only to be blocked by the flooded Potomac River. Much to Lincoln's dismay, however, Meade failed to exploit his advantage, and Lee's shattered army was eventually able to retreat into northern Virginia. Yet again, Lee had sacrificed an enormous portion of his army in the ill-fated attack.

J

Vicksburg

On the western front, in April 1863, Grant readied his forces for a renewed effort to capture Vicksburg. With the support of Union gunboats and supply ships, he placed his army on the river south of the city. In a series of bold manoeuvres that surprised the Southerners, Grant succeeded in dividing the Confederate defenders, and by mid-May he had reached Vicksburg. For 47 days, with many residents taking refuge in caves to escape the incessant bombardment, the siege was sustained. Finally, on July 4, the day after Lee's defeat at Gettysburg, the Confederate garrison surrendered. The Union army had realized its objective in the West—the Confederacy split into two parts.

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Chickamauga and Chattanooga

Having secured the Mississippi, the Union high command decided to drive the Confederates out of east Tennessee, in preparation for a sweep into Alabama and Georgia. In the fall of 1863, Rosecrans and an army of 55,000 men captured Chattanooga. Further advance, however, was checked when they faced a reinforced Confederate army of 70,000 men under Bragg's command. In the Battle of Chickamauga (September 19-20), the Union forces were badly beaten. Forced to retreat to Chattanooga, Rosecrans's army was besieged by Confederates entrenched on the heights commanding the supply lines to the city. Grant, now in full command of the Union forces in the West, replaced Rosecrans with George H. Thomas and headed for Chattanooga with part of his Army of the Tennessee. In the three-day Battle of Chattanooga (November 23-25), Union forces dislodged the Confederate defenders and forced them into a disorderly retreat.

By the end of 1863, the war had turned in the Union's favour. After his defeat at Gettysburg, Lee was unable to sustain any further offensive operations in the North. The Union army in the West had divided the Confederacy, and its success at Chattanooga made it possible to bring the war into Alabama and Georgia.

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Grant's Plan for Victory

Confident he had finally found the right person, in early 1864 Lincoln appointed Grant commander in chief of all Union forces. Having already demonstrated his military prowess in the West, Grant moved to exploit the Northern superiority in manpower and materials to wear down the enemy. At the same time, he designed a strategy that would tighten the stranglehold around the Confederacy. The Army of the Potomac, directed by Grant and Meade, would engage Lee in northern Virginia and move on Richmond. An army commanded by Sherman would march south from Chattanooga into Georgia and capture Atlanta. Still another army under General Philip Sheridan would operate in the Shenandoah Valley and deprive Lee's forces of supplies and food from that region.